Shepshed, Dovedale & the Spook Sprint

Full set for Tracey
Sunday saw the final race in the 2014 Club Championship, the Shepshed 7. 18 members made the short trip to this popular event with plenty still to be decided although others, having already completed the qualifying races, opted instead for cross country practice at the Dovedale Dash.In perfect running conditions it was James Cassidy, fresh from a terrific performance in the Worksop Halloween Half Marathon, who led the way home with a superb chip time of 44.08 & 25^th place finish out of the 460 who completed this multi-terrain course. Colin Mee was next to finish in 40^th place in 45.46 before, in what was probably the performance of the day, a resurgent Dave Eyre stopped the clock in 46.52. Dave attributed his performance to cutting down to only 3 pork pies a day.  Chris Crosby confirmed his place as Division 2 champion ahead of Andy Orme, his closest rival, in times of 47.25 & 48.04 respectively. The slowly improving Chris Gunstone was next in 48.19 before Steve Leafe, running well despite two half marathons in the last 2 weeks, completed the course in 48.57. Chris Hughes ran solidly for his 50.44 before Jenny Laing, making a really welcome racing re-appearance after a maternity break, crossed the line in 51.17. The evergreen Rod Lower ran his usual consistent race to record 51.23 before the closest inter-club battle of the race saw Ashley Parkes just edging out Tracey Glover in chip times of 52.48 & 52.53 respectively. The performances were noteworthy in a number of ways with Ashley sealing the Division 3 title & Tracey completing the terrific feat of running to a high standard in everyone of  the 14 championship races. Ray Udall, returning to action after a long injury break, gave his usual 110% effort to stop the clock in 53.42 with Paul Glover, clearly enjoying his first season of racing, next in 55.16. Malcolm Moore completed his championship season with 56.53 before Mark Nixon, another who has not raced for sometime, finished in 57.27. Steve Tempest & Tim Argent both ran well to record 58.44 & 60.02 respectively with Tim’s performance deservedly securing him the Division 4 title. Another in the very early stages of his racing career, Richard Ward, gave everything to record 63.39  before Club stalwarts Linda Tempest, Felicity Towns, Cath Johnson & Roger Barraclough battled well for their times of 78.51, 81.59, 85.09 & 85.27 respectively.
12 Club members, many taking part in this unique event for the first time, tackled the 4.75 mile Dovedale Dash. The event is noted for lots of mud, some really sharp climbs, particularly to the finish & the downhill cavalry charge at the start  to the stepping stones across the River Dove. The Club’s runners were well to the fore and appropriately it was Men’s Club Champion designate, Dominic Sharman, who led the way home with a superb 21^st place finish in 31.08 with the redoubtable Chris Pearson ten places further back in an excellent 32.06.  Shane Chapman ran really well for his 32.49 & 42^nd place before the battling Gerry O’Brien stopped the clock in 34.03 & 75^th place. Adrian Middleton,  despite a spectacular tumble, ran really well for his 39.00 as did Gary Price, Sam Skidmore, Dave Renshaw & Chris Morton, who completed the course in 56.37, 61.34, 64.53 & 66.13 respectively. After this the number of finishers seemed to overwhelm the timekeepers with Heidi Elliott, Lisa Wright & Mark Skidmore finishing in 851^st , 853^rd & 1007^th respectively out of almost 1100 finishers, but unfortunately weren’t allocated finishing times.
Nikki Reeves, who has been really unlucky with injuries throughout the year, represented the Club with distinction in Friday night’s Nottingham Spooky Sprint 5k, returning a very respectable 23.18.